Bombed cities invite Obama to visit (Hiroshima / Nagasaki) (New stop for apology tour?)

Politico ^ | 10/27/2009 | Alexander Burns

[markomalley]

The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki invited President Barack Obama on Tuesday to visit the two cities hit by American nuclear weapons ...

... during the Second World War, AP reports.

AP: "The two cities' mayors formally invited Obama on Tuesday to visit sometime before next May, but U.S. officials say it is highly unlikely he will travel to either city during his Nov. 12-13 visit to Tokyo.

"An April speech Obama gave in Prague calling for a world free of nuclear weapons raised expectations, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month heightened them further.

"'Many of the past Nobel Peace laureates have visited ground zero,' the Hiroshima-based Chugoku newspaper said in an editorial. 'We urge him to go and see the place himself and renew his commitment to a nuclear-free world.'"

[markomalley]

There's no question he will go...so he can apologize for our victory of WWII and to promise reparations for all of the Japanese deaths we caused. (*blech*)

[a fool in paradise]

“I’m sorry that the Communists did not get to play a role in the shaping of post-war Japan”

[batter]

It’s a twofer: apology opportunity and excuse to avoid making a decision of AfPak.

[basil]

No doubt he will ask the Japanese to apologize for bombing Pearl Harbor. Yeah, sure.....

[johnandrhonda]

for the record, they weren’t nuclear weapons, but atomic weapons.

[alexander_busek]

Yes, of course, he’d say that if only we’d had a nuclear-free world back in 1945, the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would never have had to happen.

Regards,

[Eric in the Ozarks]

How often can this man embarrass the US in his presidency ?

[gathersnomoss]

Will “The Head” apologize to ex-girlfriends?

[silverleaf]

Have these two Japanese gentlemen ever been to Pearl Harbor?

[DGHoodini]

Well *that* ain’t the way *I* heeeeeeeeeered it!
The way *I* heeeeard it:

One terrorist fella said to another terrorist sniper: “Saaaaay! Why don’t we get him to come to Tripoli to apologize for the U.S. Marines?”!

[sticker]

A four year term has approximately 1,460 days so I would say at least 1,000 times.

[AmericanInTokyo]

There is considerable movement under the surface, to arrange it--we have heard from multiple, good sources here in Tokyo. If in fact he goes, he will indeed apologize for the bombings and project that it was the fault of the United States and perhaps even a war crime.

However, as you might expect, for the life of them, they dont want to get it out, so they are keeping it under wraps until the last minute--one will know when one gets wind of the State Dept. and White House advance men when they hit town, if they start poking around Hiroshima or Nagasaki, we will know they are serious about adding it to "Obama's Great Worldwide Apology Tour 2009". The scoundrels are, the political section of the US Embassy in Tokyo (with particular input and pressure by our current ambassador here), and on the other side of the town, the Democratic Party of Japan (new, ruling party). In between are various liberal/leftist disarmament groups, the mayors of Hiro and Naga, the governors as well from those two prefectures (probably). Everyone is keeping rather hush hush about it, for they fear a huge PR explosion in the USA from "extremist hawk-types" back in their face, such as they got with the revisionist Enola Gay exhibition at the Air/Space Museum in D.C. some years ago.

This one indeed merits watching. Some well placed Republican Senators, if they had the b*lls, on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could get to the bottom of this one REAL quick, if you ask me.

[C19fan]

Be careful what you wish for. We would of probably had a real World War III if not for atomic/nuclear weapons. As WW II showed, even without atomic weapons man has pretty good at killing each other. The Japs should now that considering what happened to Tokyo where more people dies in a single raid using incendiaries than at Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

[Young Werther]

I remember a cover story from Mad magazine where the Japanese Pilots were asking for compensation for the damage to their eardrums when the Arizona and the other targets at Pearl Harbour blew up.

It was MAD then but given the present Administration I'm not surprised!

[cld51860]

Terrific. Now he can emulate Jon Stewart and call Harry Truman a war criminal.

[alexander_busek]

for the record, they weren’t nuclear weapons, but atomic weapons.

Wrong. There is no distinction in meaning between "nuclear" weapons and "atomic" weapons.

Now, if you were to talk about thermonuclear weapons, that would be something else.

Regards,

[Mac from Cleveland]

Tell him to review this before he goes:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2349112/posts

[markomalley]

My original commentary was tongue-in-cheek.

Geez.

Thanks a lot.

[TheDon]

What the POTUS should say, “This is what happens when you mess with the US.”

[ICE-FLYER]

Even IF Japan apologized for their

Attack on the Chinese and the rape and murder of over a million
The Attack on Pearl Harbor,
The Slaughter of men, women and children in the Philippines,
Their merciless actions at Bataan,
and the many other atrocities visited upon innocent people all over the Pacific I WILL NEVER APOLOGIZE for ENDING their ATROCITIES with a nuclear device.